After a seemingly endless winter break, Formula One is finally back with all cars being on track together for the first time.

Whilst the testing does give us an early barometer for a team’s level of performance, it’s always dangerous to read too much into these tests. Most of the teams are still learning about their cars, no-one’s performance is truly optimised and fuel loads can vary from full race loads to the amount needed for a hail mary qualifying run.

So, how did each team get on in our first day at the Circuit de Catalunya?

Headaches around the selection of the England test side are nothing new, there’s always a batsman or two that’s woefully out of form whilst another is scoring runs by the bucket load at county level. This time however, it’s the bowlers’ turn to create problems. In a stark contrast to the batsmen there appears to be an abundance of pace bowlers who’d be more than capable of slotting into the test side. Continue reading →

Keaton Jennings’ debut heroics in India have earned him the right to keep his test spot, whilst Gary Ballance’s incredible domestic form has ensured he gets a recall. For the bowler’s it’s a chance for the so far uncapped Toby Roland Jones to get his first game whilst Mark Wood returns following injury problems and there’s a surprise call up for Liam Dawson. Continue reading →

Two things have been a constant in Wayne Rooney’s career. Goals and transfer rumours. The forward is a regular feature on the back pages of most newspapers, be it a move to Chelsea, Real Madrid or more recently a move to the newly found riches of Chinese football. Despite this, he remains club captain at Manchester United, but for how much longer?

Sauber are the first Formula One team to unveil their car for the 2017 season.

The C36 features a striking new livery. The car being primarily blue and white with a gold front wing and gold detailing along the sides of the car and the wing mirrors. The gold paint is a way of celebrating Sauber’s 25 year anniversary in Formula One.

Every year the ICC hands out it’s pick of awards, with the most prestigious prize normally reserved for the test player of the year. Contrary to most award ceremony’s, the ICC doesn’t host a glitzy event filled with players in tuxedos, totally unable to speak without first asking their PR teams if it’s okay, but this was no glam event, far from it. Simply a series of tweets dragged out over a seemingly endless time frame.

But as with all of these events ceremonies there is an element of debate over which player truly deserves their place or how it is disgraceful that another player was overlooked entirely. So, here at Middle and Off, we decided to go through award by award and judge how well the ICC have selected their winners.

The ECB have today claimed that they have saved Durham County Cricket Club, in a press statement they proudly announced that they had agreed on terms that apparently secured Durham’s future, yet many believe it to be the final nail in the coffin for the North Eastern county.